Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews. I do agree, Pike is extremely pushy and there is quite a bit of anger under his halfway charming surface. I don't own any characters from the Mentalist, however I wish I did. As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy!

Trigger warning: language and violence

Wow, that was strange. She thought to herself and locked the door before heading to her bedroom, she had a weird feeling in her stomach, but blamed them on nervous butterflies. After taking a shower, she climbed into bed, tossing and turning and willing herself to fall asleep.

Three weeks later

Lisbon sat at her desk, studying a case file of a murdered girl they had found in an alley just hours ago. Jane was peering over her shoulder, he was a little too close for comfort but working like this had been their new normal ever since joining the FBI. Sometimes she wondered what changed and why he was always wanting to be around her and why he sometimes looked at her like she was the most amazing thing in the world. Teresa sighed and looked at him, his eyes still scanning the file, trying to commit every detail to his supposed 'memory palace' as he liked to call it.

"All right, I'm done now." Jane said, breathing in the scent of her vanilla shampoo and leaning back on her desk. He noticed the way she tensed up by his close proximity. This was not normal for Lisbon, she used to be fine with the way he was always in her space. Something was definitely off with her lately, but he just couldn't figure out what it was.

"Lisbon, what's the matter?" Jane questioned, leaning down so he was eye level with her, it wouldn't matter anyway, by the way she was refusing to look at him. He could sense the alarm that his question had caused.

"I don't know what you mean Jane." Lisbon closed the file and laid it on her desk, refusing to look him in the eye, afraid he'd see right through her.

"I mean, you're so...I don't know, you just don't seem like yourself lately." Jane bent down, lowering his voice, being careful not to attract any attention to their conversation. He could already tell that she was trying to come up with an excuse that could justify her new behavior.

"I'm fine." She blew him off and focused on a pen in front of her.

"Look at me when you say that Lisbon."

She turned her chair towards him and let out a breath, trying to put on her best poker face. "I'm fine, Jane. Really." She laughed like what he was saying was ridiculous, but he knew she was faking it. He then watched as she plastered on a fake smile and playfully whacked his arm.

"Am I interrupting something?" Pikes voice made Lisbon almost jump out of her seat. Her heart raced as she turned to look at his expression, which was probably already one of annoyance being that she had been so close to Jane.

"No, not at all." Lisbon smiled at the man who was standing in front of her desk. "How's it going Marcus? You having a good day?"

"Can I talk to you in private Teresa." Pike asked, ignoring her question and watching as she looked at Jane and slowly got up from her chair. Jane did not move, which forced her to brush by him as she made her way over to Pike. She glared at Jane, knowing that he was doing it just to piss Pike off.

"Yes, of course." She walked out the door and took him to a secluded part by the stairs.

He stood there, pacing back and fourth as she watched him.

"Look, I don't really know how to say this, but I don't like how close you are with Jane. I feel like he's distracting you."

"What do you mean he's distracting me?" Lisbon scoffed, her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to understand what Pike was talking about. She did sort of see what he was saying. Jane was a huge part of her life, she worked hours by his side and spent way more time with him than she did with Marcus. She is closer to him than she has ever been with anybody else. He knows things about her that nobody else knows and she is the same with him. But he was closed off emotionally and he still wore his wedding ring. She had to ignore the thoughts that sometimes crept into the back of her mind and made her wonder why she had never tried to have a relationship with him. Her logical side knew why. So why not try to build a life with a man who gave her the attention that she craved, one who wouldn't lie and trick her.

"I just feel like I have to compete with him, and I don't want to do that. So I would really prefer it if you didn't talk to him as much."

"Hey, you have nothing to compete with, okay? It's you I want, not Jane." Lisbon tried to relax, trying to convince him that there was nothing going on between her and her partner.

"Okay, but like I said earlier, I'd really prefer it if you tried to keep your distance."

Lisbon crossed her arms, annoyed by the way Pike was handling the situation. She understood that he was jealous but that didn't mean he should start dictating who she was able to be around in the workplace.

"I don't know what to say Marcus, he's my partner. I don't really think-" She was cut off by Pike grabbing her arm pulling it towards him.

"You want to make me happy right?"

"Yes, but Jane and I-"

"Is he more important than me? I thought that we really had something!" Pike's grip on her arm tightened and she tried to squirm out of his grasp. Her heart was pounding in her chest and felt heat creeping up her cheeks, embarrassed that somebody would see them.

"We do, it's just that- ow Marcus stop!" Pain shot up her arm as he twisted it, anger flashing in his eyes.

He let go of her arm and pulled his back quickly as if he had been burned. She looked at him, shocked that he would grab her like that. She wanted to talk but couldn't find the right words to say.

"Oh Teresa, I'm so sorry."

"Why would you do that?" She rubbed her wrist and tried to make the throbbing go away.

"It will never happen again, I promise. It's just been such a stressful day. But I won't make any excuses. Please, can you forgive me?" He pleaded, stepping closer and looking into her eyes.

"It's fine. But you need to realize that Jane's my partner and he's also my friend. I don't want to be told that I can't talk to my friends Marcus. It's not something that I'm prepared to handle in a relationship." She felt her heart rate start to return to normal and took a shaky breath. This shouldn't be happening. Why are you letting this happen? Why aren't you telling him to go to hell? Thoughts flashed through her mind and she tried to shut them out.

"No, I guess I understand. You can't blame a guy for getting jealous though, can you?" Pike laughed and ran his hand through his hair.

"Marcus, I really have to get back to work. Are we done here?" Lisbon asked, trying to get out of the conversation and bury her head in case files so she would't have to think.

"Not quite yet, beautiful." He closed the distance between them by kissing her. She quickly pushed him away and looked at him, shocked.

"Not at work!" She tried hard to hide the annoyance on her face.

"Yeah, screw me then, huh?"

"You know that's not what I meant." Lisbon sighed, she was so frustrated with the way he was acting. Pike watched as she walked back to the office.

"Everything okay?" Jane was laying on the couch, watching as she went back to her chair.

"Yeah, he just wanted to talk about work."

"Well that's a lie. You know I can tell when you're lying Lisbon." Jane said in a matter-of-fact voice. He sat up and pulled her chair around to him, something that he was making a habit of doing.

"I'm not lying Jane, we really were talking about work." Lisbon peeked back over her shoulder to make sure that Pike wasn't still there and then looked back at Jane who seemed to be studying her.

Jane looked down and saw the red marks on her wrist, probably already turning into a bruise that she would undoubtedly hide later.

"Then what's that?" He motioned to her wrist and saw her eyes widen briefly before she was able to put on a mask of calm.

"What? Nothing, it's nothing." Lisbon tried covering it with her hand and tried turning her chair back around but Jane stopped her with his knee.

"It's not nothing." Jane whispered and gently moved her hand away and examined the marks. He felt anger burning in his stomach and swallowed it back. Now was not the time, at least not the right time for Lisbon. He was ready at any time to give that guy a piece of his mind.

"Please Jane, he didn't mean to. Let's not make a big deal out of this, okay?" Lisbon pleaded, pulling her hand back from his.

"Teresa, listen to me. I don't care if he's stressed, I don't care if he's in a bad mood. I don't care about any of that. I will not tolerate him not being able to control his actions. If he ever does anything like this again I will hurt him badly. Okay?" Jane stared into her eyes and she shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"He won't." Lisbon replied, breaking away from the eye contact. "Are we done?" She stared down at her lap.

"Yes, I think so." Jane signed and turned her chair back around so it was facing her desk.

The rest of the day dragged on, golden light shined though the FBI windows. Lisbon was yawning and Jane was already on his third nap of the day. She tucked her files away in her desk and stood up, glancing over at Jane who was sleeping peacefully. Lisbon gathered the rest of her things and made her way out of the office.

Arriving at her house she groaned as she saw Pike's car in the driveway. She grew concerned when she didn't see him in his car or on her porch. Drawing her gun, she made her way to the door which was opened slightly. She heard movement in her kitchen and Pike stepped out from the doorway.

"Pike, what the hell?" She said, exasperated, still holding the gun in her hand.

"Whoa, Teresa, put the gun down."

"What are you doing in my house? How the hell did you get in here?" She stood there, still shocked.

"I'm cooking you dinner, and I found your key under the door mat." Pike grinned and made his way back into the kitchen to continue stirring the sauce for pasta.

"Well I didn't know you were coming over Marcus. You should have called." She put her gun away in a drawer and saw him freeze.

"Well Teresa, if you're so unhappy I'll never do it again. Sorry for bothering you." Pike slammed the pot of water down on the counter, water splashing onto the floor.

"Marcus, stop. You know that's not what I meant. In the future, I would just like some kind of warning before I accidentally shoot you in my kitchen." Teresa laughed and tried to diffuse the situation and walked up to him slowly.

"Don't tell me to fucking stop Teresa. I try doing one nice thing for you and you ruin it. Why can't you just be happy with anything." He yelled, dumping the water down the sink along with the pasta sauce.

"Stop, don't do that." She walked up behind him and tried to stop him from dumping everything that he had just made. He jerked the pot out of her reach, causing him to burn his arm. Pike hissed and dropped the pot into the sink, causing a loud crashing sound.

"You stupid bitch." He turned around and slapped her. Teresa stumbled back and ran into the counter.

Pike realized what he had done and brought his hands up to cradle her face but she stopped him by grabbing his wrists.

"Teresa, I'm sorry. I just-"

"Marcus, I need you to leave." She whispered, emotion rising in her throat.

"But, baby, please, I didn't mean to hurt you. You just caused me to burn my arm and I got a little carried away." Marcus spit out an excuse.

"Get out." Teresa said a little louder, her eyes watering.

"I'm sorry, please."

"Out!" She yelled and watched as he headed for her door. As soon as she heard the door click she sank down to the floor. She heard his car speed away and thought about what happened. Why the hell did you have to get him that mad? You know that he gets offended easily. It's your fault, right? Right? She sat there for what seemed like forever and pulled herself up and finished cleaning up the rest. She really didn't want to lose Pike, and she had dealt with violent men before. Jumping in the shower, she contemplated what she could have done to make the situation turn out differently. You could have just let him cook you dinner Teresa, would it have been that hard to just smile and accept it? Turning the shower off, she grabbed her towel and dried herself off. The redness in her cheek had faded significantly and her wrist was only slightly purple, she smiled at the little victory and pulled a T-shirt over her head to sleep in. Crawling into bed she considered calling Jane, he was really the only person she could talk to other than Cho. But she already knew Jane's dislike for Marcus and decided against it. You're gonna have to keep this to yourself. She thought as she pulled the covers up to her shoulders. Just when she was about to fall asleep she heard her phone ring, it was Pike. She let it go to voicemail but it rang again a few seconds later.

"What do you want?"

"I just wanted to apologize T. Please forgive me, I have no idea why I did that. I'll never ever hurt you again. I promise."

"Marcus, it's late. Can't we talk in the morning."

"Please, I can't make it until morning. I need you to tell me that you forgive me. Please."

She heard him begging through the phone and finally gave in.

"It's fine Marcus." Teresa heard his breath hitch from the other end of the phone.

"Oh thank you, I just couldn't stand it until I knew you weren't mad at me anymore. I love you so much."

She held the phone away from her ear and tried to register what he just said. Did he just say that he loved me? Oh no, oh please no.

"Teresa, are you still there?"

"Yeah, well, um, goodnight Marcus." She hung up the phone and laid it on her nightstand. Her heart was pounding in her chest. He had said he loved her, that's all she wanted to hear from a man for years, but now she it just feels wrong. Why is this happening? She stared at the ceiling, ignoring her phone which kept lighting up with texts from Pike. She finally picked up her phone and turned it off, turning over and burying her face in her pillow.

Sorry it took me so long to update. This was a difficult chapter to write. I hope you enjoy!